The standardization and adoption of Semantic Web technologies has resulted in a variety of assets, including an unprecedented volume of data being semantically enriched and systems and services, which consume or publish this data. Although gathering, processing and publishing data is a step towards further adoption of Semantic Web, quality does not yet play a central role in these assets (e.g., data lifecycle, system/service development).

The enabling of easy reuse and repurposing of data and metadata has been one of the central themes of the Semantic Web field since its inception. Ever-increasing data volumes and the need for scalable solutions for information sharing, discovery, and reuse make this Semantic Web topic even more important today.

It was just about 5 years ago, when the Semantic Web journal was launched, and a bit over 4 years that the first issue appeared. So it’s perhaps a good point in time to look back and reflect a bit on what happened.